THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JOURNALISTS AND PROPAGANDISTS A correct, but misguided protest

"Evenimentul Zilei" yesterday wrote that two days ago, 30 people protested peacefully, bearing banners with slogans such as "The function of the press is to inform, not to manipulate", "You are manipulating people with the television" or "They are using Antena 3 to suspend the president: Ponta, Antonescu, Voiculescu".

"We want to raise a red flag, the fact that in Romania journalism has become more of a form of putting people on trial. Journalism should inform, not put people on trial. We want Romania's interests to be well defended abroad. We think that through the current leadership of the country, represented by Crin Antonescu and Victor Ponta, the prime minister who is a proven plagiarist, we can't be represented in Brussels correctly", said the organizer of the protest, Andrei Nicolau, quoted by the paper.

Of course, the protest against manipulation through the media is correct.

But the justification is not well thought out.

In reality, the so-called journalism practiced by the TV stations of Dan Voiculescu is pure propaganda.

The manipulation practiced over there includes all forms - from omission of information, going to distortion of facts, to provocations and twisted interpretations, by abusing logic and the guests who step out of line on the shows.

Perhaps these were the reasons behind the protest, but they were expressed in a unfortunate manner, in the phrase "Journalism should inform, not put on trial", which basically amounts to the notorious slogan of the rioting Romanian miners in the nineties "We work, we don't think".

No one will mistake us journalists for a court.

No one will make that confusion when it comes to the TV stations of Dan Voiculescu.

On the other hand, the role of providing information which the press delivers represents the minimum - saying the truth is the least that has to be done, without which we can't even speak about press.

But the public demands, needs for opinions to be crystallized, so it can decide.

The press issues judgments, interpretations, opinions and those are part of its functions in democracy.

That has nothing to do with the political propaganda of Dan Voiculescu.

The media is one thing, and propaganda is another.

Journalists put people on trial.

Propagandists don't.